On 18 June 1815, a small chestnut horse carried the Duke of Wellington for nearly seventeen hours without the rider leaving the saddle. His name was Copenhagen. When it was all over and Napoleon had lost Waterloo, this horse made one final gesture that would echo through history, then lived twenty-one years in retirement before being buried with the honours usually reserved for a general. This is his story, that of Waterloo’s other horse, so often overshadowed by the Emperor’s mount.
The horse who bore the man who defeated Napoleon
At Waterloo, two men faced each other and beneath them, two horses entered legend. Napoleon rode a grey Arabian, Marengo, Napoleon’s horse. Opposite him, the Duke of Wellington sat atop Copenhagen, a small chestnut standing barely 15.1 hands (1.55 m) at the withers. That day, it was the Duke’s horse who remained standing to the end, and it was Napoleon’s camp that collapsed.
Copenhagen was born in 1808. His name commemorated a British naval victory, the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. He descended from prestigious bloodlines: through his sire, he counted among his ancestors Eclipse, one of the greatest racehorses in the history of the sport. He was therefore partly a Thoroughbred, with a measure of Arabian blood on the dam’s side, which explained his colouring, compact frame, and above all his exceptional endurance.
Seventeen hours in the saddle, never faltering
On the day of battle, Wellington mounted before dawn and scarcely dismounted all day. Copenhagen carried him through mud, cannon fire and cavalry charges, from one position to another across the field. When the Duke finally dismounted late that night, his horse had been in service for nearly seventeen hours.
Wellington later summed up his mount’s character in a phrase that would become famous: he may have ridden faster horses and many far handsomer ones, but for bottom and endurance, he had never seen his equal. A tribute that speaks volumes: at Waterloo, speed mattered less than staying power.
- Genuine endurance: carrying a man and his equipment through an entire day of combat requires exceptional physical condition, not merely embellished anecdote.
- The mythical element: battle accounts often exaggerate the facts. Here, the documented length of Wellington’s day is well established by his companions and officers.
- Living legacy: a horse becomes legend when his story is recorded during his lifetime, as was the case for Copenhagen at Stratfield Saye.
The kick that nearly felled the Duke
It is the detail history remembered. Once the battle was won, Wellington dismounted and, relieved, patted Copenhagen’s hindquarters to thank him. The horse, exhausted yet still spirited, promptly delivered a kick that narrowly missed the Duke. After seventeen hours of war, the animal had lost none of his temperament.
The anecdote endured through the centuries because it spoke a truth about Copenhagen: he was known to be difficult, nervy, quick to kick. He was no easy ride, he was a horse of character. And perhaps it was precisely this inner fire that allowed him to remain standing when so many horses fell around him.
Twenty-one years of retirement and a star’s farewell
After Waterloo, Copenhagen spent his days in peace on Wellington’s estate at Stratfield Saye in southern England. He became a celebrity. Visitors wanted to see him, ladies of high society brought him cakes, people cut strands of his mane as keepsakes. The little chestnut of the battlefield had become a living attraction, a piece of history one could touch.
He died in 1836, aged twenty-eight, a considerable age for a horse. Wellington ordered him buried intact in the estate park with full military honours. A volley was fired above his grave, later marked with a stone and epitaph. Few horses in history have received such a funeral. This consideration placed Copenhagen in the very exclusive circle of legendary horses whose worth cannot be measured in money, but in memory.
The two horses of Waterloo, two opposite destinies
The contrast with Napoleon’s horse is striking. Marengo, captured after the battle, was taken to England and exhibited as a trophy. Upon his death, his skeleton was preserved and displayed in a London military museum, where it can still be seen today. Two horses, two sides, two radically different ends: one buried with honours by the victor, the other reduced to a museum skeleton by the nation that had defeated him.
This symmetry explains why these two mounts still fascinate us. They remind us that behind the great men of history books stood animals of flesh and blood, whose endurance and courage literally weighed upon the fate of empires.
- Copenhagen, a chestnut born in 1808, carried the Duke of Wellington for nearly seventeen hours at Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
- Part Thoroughbred, part Arabian, he owed his legendary endurance to his dual heritage.
- Once the battle was won, he delivered a kick that came close to striking Wellington: a horse of character to the very end.
- He died in 1836 at twenty-eight years old and was buried with military honours in the park at Stratfield Saye.
Discover the horses that marked history so profoundly they were worth fortunes
What Copenhagen still teaches us
Beyond the battle, Copenhagen’s story is that of a horse who lived long and well cared for, cherished to his final days. It reminds us that an aged horse deserves appropriate care, adjusted nutrition and respect for what he has given. The fundamental principles of caring for a horse throughout his life have not fundamentally changed since Wellington’s time.
His story also demonstrates how the mixing of horse breeds can produce exceptional individuals: neither the largest nor the fastest, Copenhagen marked history through sheer solidity. Proof that a horse cannot be judged by his height, but by what he carries in his heart.
Sources: correspondence and biographies of the Duke of Wellington, archives of the Stratfield Saye estate, collections of the London Military Museum housing the skeleton of Marengo. The reported dialogues and gestures are drawn from contemporary testimonies of Wellington’s officers and close associates.
